100 Facts for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

For the second year in a row, I scoured Fangraphs, various ADP sources, Rotowire’s Auction Value Calculator, and Baseball Savant for 100 interesting facts and pieces of information. And for the second year in a row, I went through all of that info on my podcast – Fastball Fantasy Baseball. This year, you can also find those 100 facts below.

These are facts and statistics without analysis. You can take the information and interpret it how you want, but hopefully, this gives you some guidance heading into your drafts.

The season is not here yet, but why not get a head start and jump in a Fantrax Classic Draft contest? Get a jump on the season with a Best Ball league or maybe a Draft and Hold. Or put some green on the line with a new season-long league to try and conquer. There’s no better time than now to get your baseball on!

100 Fantasy Baseball Facts for 2023

Hitters

1. 10 qualified players were league average or better in all of the following categories – K%, BB%, GB%, LD%, AVG, OBP, wOBA, avg EV, Barrel%, Hardhit%, Hard Contact%: Manny Machado, Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman, Yordan Alvarez, Sean Murphy, Corey Seager, Pete Alonso, Will Smith, Taylor Ward, and Justin Turner.
2. If you add in ISO and SLG as qualifiers, there are only 2 players that meet the criteria: Alvarez and Ward.
3. Manny Machado ended 2022 with 32 HR, 100 R, 102 RBI, 9 SB, a .298 AVG, a 9.8% barrel rate, and a 49% HardHit rate. Steamer projects him for 30 HR, 89 R, 98 RBI, 8 SB, and a .268 AVG in 2023.
4. Here is a blind resume for you! In 2022, Player A finished with 557 PA, 17 HR, 20 SB, and a .297 AVG while Player B ended his season with 541 PA, 14 HR, 21 SB, and a .260 AVG. According to their 2023 Steamer Projections, Player A is expected to tally 19 HR, 17 SB, and a .267 AVG and has an ADP of 88 in NFBC. Player B projects for 17 HR, 17 SB, and a .259 AVG, with an NFBC ADP of 191. Player A is Andres Gimenez and Player B is Thairo Estrada.
5. In 2022, Andres Gimenez finished with 17 HR, 20 SB, and a .297 AVG in 557 PAs. His K%, BB%, barrel%, HardHit%, Chase%, SwStr%, and Contact% each improved from the previous season. He had a 21% LD which allowed him to sustain a high BABIP. Steamer projects him for 19 HR, 17 SB, and a.267 AVG.
6. Adolis Garcia finished 13th in Rotowire’s Fantasy Baseball Earned Auction Value calculator. In 2022, he finished with 657 PAs, 27 HR, 25 SB, and a .250 AVG. Steamer projects him for 27 HR, 17 SB, and a .234 AVG. He’s trending up in many categories over the last two seasons – barrel%, HardHit%, LD%, BB%, K%, and Contact%.
7. In 2022, Corey Seager led all shortstops in home runs. He did so with a 10.5% barrel rate, 45.5% HardHit rate, the second lowest K% of his career, and a .242 BABIP despite a 20% LD rate. He ended up with a .245 AVG versus a .283 xBA. He was a major victim of the shift in 2022. There will be no shifts in 2023.
8. Joc Pederson had a career year vs. lefties last season. For his career, he is a .211 hitter versus lefty pitchers as opposed to a .237 hitter versus righties. In 2022 he hit .278 against righties and .245 against lefties for a career-best .274 AVG. It was not a fluke either. He made improvements from 2021 in BB%, K%, barrel%, HardHit%, GB%, chase%, Contact%, and SwStr%. He will be back with the Giants in 2023.
9. One player who underperformed his batting average was Carlos Santana, whose .202 AVG was 51 points below his .253 xBA for the largest difference among qualified hitters. He did this with a .209 BABIP (the lowest in baseball), a 9.3% barrel rate, and a 44.9% HardHit rate.
10. Paul Goldschmidt’s wOBA of .419 was third in baseball but was 52 points higher than his .367 xwOBA for the largest gap among qualified hitters.
11. Much like his wOBA vs xwOBA, Paul Goldschmidt’s .317 AVG was higher than his .261 xBA, the largest difference among qualified hitters. A close second was Xander Bogaerts who outperformed his .259 xBA with a .307 AVG.
12. The highest BABIP in 2022 belonged to Goldy at 368, which is tied for the second highest BABIP of his career. He did it with the second-lowest LD% of his career.
13. The biggest wOBA underperformer of ’22 was Ryan Mountcastle, whose .316 wOBA was 46 points lower than his xwOBA, for the largest difference among qualified hitters.
14. Among qualified hitters, Mountcastle was tied for sixth in barrel rate with Teoscar Hernandez at 15%. Mountcastle led qualified first basemen in barrel rate and was sixth in HardHit rate at 45.8%.
15. The only players who are among the best 10 in chase%, contact%, and SwStr% are Yandy Diaz, Myles Straw, and Steven Kwan.
16. Straw had a .221 AVG in 2022 despite a 14% K, likely because of weak contact. He carried a .7% barrel rate and a 26% HardHit rate, along with a 47% GB rate.
17. Javier Baez was among the 3 worst qualified hitters in the 2022 season in regards to chase rate (worst), first pitch strike (worst), overall contact rate (third worst), and CSW% (worst).
18. Nobody saw more sliders last year than Baez. He batted .196 against them with a .192 xBA. He also saw the second fewest fastballs.
19. Aaron Judge was the best fastball and slider hitter in baseball this season according to Fangraphs’ pitch values.
20. Who was the best against curveballs? Austin Riley!
21. Since his rookie year, Riley has made huge jumps in performance vs. breaking pitches and was third against sliders this year according to Fangraphs.
22. Fangraphs shows that Yordan Alvarez was the best against changeups in 2022.
23. One qualified batter hit over 20 home runs and stole over 20 bases in each of 2021 and 2022 while also hitting above .290 in both seasons. That player is Trea Turner. Cedric Mullins and Bo Bichette both did in 2021 but fell short of those parameters last season.
24. Among first basemen, the highest barrel and HardHit rates since 2019 belong to Miguel Sano.
25. Since 2021, Aaron Judge is first in HR by 21. He is also first in barrel rate, HardHit rate, wRC+, fWAR, wOBA, and tied for first with Jose Ramirez in RBI. He is second in runs, 8th in AVG and 26th in SB.
26. Steamer projects Acuña to be the stolen base leader with 32 swiped bags.
27. It projects 19 players to have more than 20 steals.
28. Acuña projects as a 30/30 player for 2023.
29. Cedric Mullins, Fernando Tatis Jr., Julio Rodriguez, and Jose Ramirez each project for some form of 30/20 (steals and home runs) according to Steamer.
30. Steamer projects Bobby Witt, Jazz Chisholm, Randy Arozarena, and Michael Harris II to go 20/20.
31. Trea Turner, Kyle Tucker, Marcus Semien, and Oneil Cruz are all borderline 20/20 players according to Steamer.
32. The highest projected AVG for all of the players mentioned in numbers 26-31 is Turner’s .286 AVG.
33. In 2022 Cody Bellinger saw career worsts in K% and BB%. He also posted the second-lowest AVG, barrel%, HardHit%, and Chase% of his career.
34. Keep an eye on where free agent Edwin Rios lands. The Dodgers apparently hated Rios since they never gave him a shot despite solid tools. Rios has 291 PAs for his career, a 15.5% barrel rate, and a 47% HardHit rate. Yes, he struck out a good amount in the majors, but never really saw consistent playing time. He was a .291 career hitter in the minors.
35. Among qualified batters, 43 were above average in average Exit Velocity, barrel%, HardHit%, AVG, SLG, and wOBA.
36. Of those 43, eight had higher xBA, xSLG, and xwOBA than their actual numbers. They are Yordan Alvarez, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Ronald Acuna Jr., Corey Seager, Ryan McMahon, Ryan Mountcastle, and Sean Murphy.
37. The only qualified batter with a higher hard contact rate than medium contact rate last season was Aaron Judge.
38. In 2021, 5 qualified players did it: Tatis, Sano, Judge, Ohtani, and Salvador Perez.
39. In 2019, 47 players did it.
40. Since 2021, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto are top 10 in wRC+. They’ll both be on the same team this season.
41. Six qualified batters had a higher BB% than K% in 2022. In order from the largest to smallest difference, they are Juan Soto, Yandy Diaz, Alex Bregman, Luis Arraez, Alejandro Kirk, and Steven Kwan.
42. Soto is the only qualified hitter to do it in 2021 and 2022.
43. Three players were in the top 10 in wRC+ vs LHP last season: Jose Altuve, Austin Riley, and Albert Pujols.
44. Freddie Freeman has the highest AVG in baseball since 2020 at .317. Trea Turner’s .316 AVG during the same time frame is second.
45. Since 2020, Eugenio Suarez has the most strikeouts in baseball with 434. He has a .215 AVG since then.
46. According to Fangraphs’ baserunning metric, the best baserunner in 2022 was Tommy Edman.
47. Aaron Judge, Yordan Alvarez, and Kyle Schwarber had the 3 highest HR/FB rates among qualified hitters last year.
48. Judge had a 35.6% HR/FB rate and hit 62 home runs in 2022. His career HR/FB rate is 32.3%.
49. Alvarez had a 25.3% HR/FB rate and hit 37 home runs in 2022. His career HR/FB rate is 25.5%.
50. Schwarber had a 24% HR/FB rate and hit 42 home runs in 2022. His career HR/FB rate is 24.8%.

Pitchers

51. Steamer projects Alek Manoah for an ERA over 4 with a 12-11 record. It projects him for a 1.26 HR/9 rate. His career HR/9 rate is .82. All of his pitches performed worse in 2022 than 2021 according to batting average against. His career HR/FB rate is below league average. He ended last season with a 2.24 ERA, but had a 3.31 xERA, 3.97 xFIP, and a 3.85 SIERA.
52. Since 2020, there is one pitcher among 28 qualified pitchers that is top 10 in K/9, BB/9, K/BB, K%, BB%, K-BB%, ERA, WHIP, xFIP, and SIERA. That pitcher is Gerrit Cole.
53. Two players missed that distinction by one category: Aaron Nola and Yu Darvish (tied for 11th in ERA).
54. Since 2020, Max Fried is top 10 among 28 qualified starters in Wins, Losses (among the fewest), BB/9, HR/9, LOB%, GB%, ERA, and xFIP. He’s 17th in K/9 rate.
55. Among all qualified starting pitchers from 2022, Corbin Burnes is top 10 in 7 of the categories from number 54. Five pitchers were top 10 in six of the categories, and three pitchers were top 10 in five of the categories.
56. Dylan Cease is third in K/9 among qualified pitchers since 2020.
57. Six pitchers in 2022 had all of their pitches grade positively according to Fangraphs’ pitch values: Justin Verlander, Alek Manoah, Max Fried, Logan Webb, Framber Valdez, and Sandy Alcantara.
58. In 2022, seven pitchers had two pitches (minimum 200 PAs thrown) with whiff rates of 25% or higher on each pitch: Rodon, Cole, Ray, Greene, Manoah (on their fastballs and sliders); Logan Webb (on his changeup and slider); and Corey Kluber (on his curveball and cutter).
59. If Spencer Strider qualified last season, he would have had the highest K/9 rate in baseball for pitchers with at least 130 IP. He also would have the lowest xERA, xFIP, and SIERA.
60. If Patrick Corbin pitched 10 more innings last year, he would have qualified and had the worst ERA in baseball. It would have been the second time in a row he finished with the worst ERA in baseball, and the third time in three consecutive seasons he would have been among pitchers with the six worst ERAs.
61. Corbin’s xERA was 6.41, 10 points worse than his actual ERA of 6.31, although his xFIP was 4.21 and his SIERA was 4.33.
62. Among qualified pitchers in 2022, 10 finished with an ERA higher than their xERA. They were Kyle Gibson, Aaron Nola, German Marquez, Corey Kluber, Carlos Rodon, Charlie Morton, Gerrit Cole, Robbie Ray, Jose Berrios, and Kevin Gausman. Gibson’s was the widest gap.
63. Among qualified pitchers in 2022, 16 finished with an ERA higher than their xFIP. They were Gibson, Berrios, Marquez, Morton, Cole, Gausman, Nola, Kluber, Nick Pivetta, Pablo Lopez, Ray, Jameson Taillon, Corbin Burnes, Jordan Montgomery, Kyle Freeland, and Jordan Lyles.
64. The player with the lowest ERA compared to his xERA last season was Alek Manoah, whose 2.24 ERA was 1.07 points higher than his xERA. He also possessed the largest gap between ERA and xFIP.
65. In 2022, eight pitchers were league average or better in K/9, BB/9, HR/9, GB%, LOB%, and ERA while also winning more games than they lost. Those pitchers were Kyle Wright, Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Zac Gallen, Shane Bieber, Shane McClanahan, Corbin Burnes, and Joe Musgrove.
66. Eight pitchers threw 200 IP last season after only four did it in 2021. The only pitcher to do it in both seasons was Sandy Alcantara.
67. Carlos Rodon had the fourth-highest FB% and the fourth-lowest HR/FB rate last season.
68. From August 2022 on, Drew Smyly had a 2.29 ERA after leaning more on his sinker and curveball and less on his cutter.
69. Since his last significant season in 2019, Noah Syndergaard has lost speed on all five of his pitches and lost spin rate on four of them. His 2022 K/9 rate was 6.35, his first season under 9 K/9.
70. In Ross Stripling’s two best seasons in terms of K/9 (2018 and 2019), he threw his curveball over 20% of the time. Its usage has decreased every season since 2019, sitting at 9.5% in 2022. Since 2019, he’s never had a K/9 rate above 8.35. Now he is playing in San Francisco with Andrew Bailey as his pitching coach.
71. Since 2019, nobody has more strikeouts than Gerritt Cole’s 920 (and it’s not particularly close – Aaron Nola is next at 783).
72. Since 2019, the best K/9 rate among qualified starters belongs to Jacob deGrom at 12.75. Cole and Carlos Rodon are also above 12 K/9 during that time.
73. Since 2019, no qualified pitcher has a better LOB% than Justin Verlander.
74. Since 2019, the fastest average fastball velocity belongs to Jacob deGrom, but since 2020 it belongs to Sandy Alcantara.
75. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values for 2022, Justin Verlander had the best fastball in baseball among qualified starters, Dylan Cease had the best slider, Corbin Burnes had the best cutter, Triston McKenzie had the best curveball, and Sandy Alcantara had the best changeup.
76. Among pitchers with 350+ batted ball events against them, two are among the worst 10 in maxEV, avgEV, most 95 MPH+ EVs, and HardHit% allowed. They are Nick Pivetta and Logan Gilbert. Pivetta also was among the 10 worst in barrels allowed.
77. Pivetta finished with a 4.56 ERA. Gilbert finished with a 3.20 ERA.
78. Carlos Rodon had the highest K% in baseball last season at 33.4%.
79. Since 2021, the highest K% in baseball belongs to Cole at 32.9%.
80. Since 2020, it’s Corbin Burnes at 33.4%.
81. The lowest BB% in baseball last year was Corey Kluber’s 3%, while Dylan Cease had the highest walk rate at 10.4%. Kluber was also 3rd in K/BB rate.
82. There are two pitchers who are top 10 in K/9, BB/9, K/BB, K%, BB%, and K-BB%. They are Aaron Nola and Kevin Gausman.
83. Jose Berrios had the biggest gap between his ERA and SIERA, with his 5.23 ERA being 1.1 runs higher than his 4.13 SIERA.
84. Alek Manoah has the opposite distinction. His 2.24 ERA was 1.61 runs higher than his 3.85 SIERA.
85. Logan Webb has allowed the fewest home runs since 2020 among pitchers with at least 300 IP. He’s thrown 395 innings since then and given up 24 home runs. For perspective, Patrick Corbin has thrown five fewer innings than Webb, but has given up 74 homers.
86. Among pitchers with at least 400 IP since 2020, Framber Valdez has the lowest number of home runs allowed with 28. Max Fried is the only other pitcher with at least 400 IP and fewer than 30 HR allowed since 2020.
87. The 10 lowest HR/IP rates for pitchers with at least 300 IP since 2020 belong to (in order) Logan Webb, Framber Valdez, Max Fried, Zack Wheeler, Corbin Burnes, Carlos Rodon, Sandy Alcantara, Luis Castillo, Alek Manoah, and Adrian Houser.
88. The qualifier for this stat is that pitchers must have thrown their pitches at least 500 times last season. There are seven pitchers that were in the top 10 of inches of movement above average with two of their pitches: Webb (sinker/changeup), Marcus Stroman (sinker/slider), Dane Dunning (sinker/changeup), Trevor Rogers (fastball/changeup), Jeffrey Springs (fastball/changeup), Aaron Nola (fastball/curveball), and Joe Musgrove (curveball/slider).
89. Last season, George Kirby threw 950 fastballs. He tossed at least 250 curveballs, sinkers, and cutters. And he threw at least 150 sliders and changeups. Using those parameters, nine starting pitchers ended up among the 10 lowest launch angles in at least two types of pitches in 2022. They were Shane McClanahan (curveball/slider), George Kirby (curveball/cutter), Shane Bieber (cutter/fastball), Marcus Stroman (cutter/slider), Zack Greinke (cutter/changeup), Sandy Alcantara (sinker/changeup), Logan Webb (sinker/changeup), and Jose Quintana (changeup/fastball).
90. That was only eight pitchers because Framber Valdez deserves his own category. He was among the 10 lowest launch angles in curveballs (2.9 degrees), cutters (3.4), sinkers (-5.7), and changeups (-9.4).
91. Using the same prior parameters for the 2022 season, there were six pitchers in the top 10 in at least two of the following categories: whiff%, K%, and putaway% on multiple pitches. They are Spencer Strider (fastball/slider), Brandon Woodruff (fastball/changeup), Kirby (FF/SI), Valdez CB/CUT), Jesus Luzardo (sinker/changeup), and Burnes (curveball/cutter/slider/changeup).
92. If George Kirby qualified, he’d be 13th in K/9, fifth in BB/9, 18th in HR/9, 17th in GB%, tied for 30th with Rodon in LOB%, 28th in ERA, 16th in xFIP, and tied with Zac Gallen for 12th in SIERA.
93. The best K-BB% last season among qualified starters belongs to Shohei Ohtani at 26.5%.
94. Since 2021, that pitcher is Max Scherzer at 27.7%.
95. Since 2020, it’s Corbin Burnes.
96. And since 2019, it’s Jacob deGrom.
97. There are only two starting pitchers who were in the top 10 of K-BB every year since 2019 (among qualified pitchers from each season): Gerrit Cole and Yu Darvish.
98. In 2019, there were 18 qualified starting pitchers that had double-digit K/9 rates. In 2022, there were eight.
99. The only pitchers who qualified each year from 2019 on that had a double-digit K/9 rate each year were Gerrit Cole and Aaron Nola.
100. Since 2019, not including 2020, there are seven closers with double-digit saves in all 3 seasons. They are Edwin Diaz, Josh Hader, Liam Hendriks, Kenley Jansen, Raisel Iglesias, Mark Melancon, and Ian Kennedy

I hope you have found these 100 facts interesting at the very least. Hopefully, they will help you prepare for your upcoming drafts and provide some guidance for keeper and other pre-draft decisions.

Got a few facts of your own? Drop them in the comments below and share the knowledge. For more great analysis check out the 2023 FantraxHQ Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit!